Thursday, December 10, 2015

The tragedy of witch hunts in rural Cambodia...

When 83-year-old traditional healer Hem Ty attended a funeral of a 17-year-old girl in the central province of Kompong Thom, he left followed by rumours that he'd cast spells on the village locals. They even began to suspect he was responsible for the teenager's death.

"I heard from the father of the victim of the girl that he came to her funeral and lifted a sheet covering her body and touched her foot," said Hun Soeun, the police chief in rural Prasat Balaing district's Doung commune. "That's why they accused him of being a sorcerer."

Opinion was split among villagers as to why Hem Ty touched the feet of the dead teenager. Some believed he was simply checking to see if the girl was definitely deceased. After all, he had been a well-respected member of the community, said Sek Loeung, his 69-year-old widow.

Hem Ty began practicing traditional medicine at the age of 24 while he was living as a monk in a nearby pagoda. After leaving the monkhood, he married Loeung, a distant relative, and settled down and had ten children. As well as farming, for decades he had a steady stream of patients visiting him for a wide range of illnesses. Full story...